Beyond liberal justice? Decolonising Colombian transitional justice through victims’ participation and indigenous rights

Transitional justice is a particular approach to justice for periods of transition to peace and democracy. It has been standardised in handbooks by profiling experts, often from the Global North, with meagre local participation in practice. It is criticised for having a liberal conception of justice that reproduces forms of structural discrimination against ethnic peoples. The Peace Agreement between Colombia and the FARC-EP signed in November 2016 addresses this criticism through a System for Truth, Reparation, and Guarantees of No-Repetition that includes a Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) that must impose sanctions following a dialogical process with victims. The tribunal requires their participation to determine how perpetrators must repair the damages caused during the armed conflict. When victims belong to ethnic groups, their participation has influenced the tribunal to make decolonising decisions. In a ground-breaking process, the JEP incorporated indigenous perspectives into its justice procedures, acknowledging the role of the Territory to ethnic groups and officially recognising it as a living being that is a right-bearer that deserves reparations. This article analyses the achievements of such a process and underlines some challenges. From a practical perspective, it contributes to broader debates regarding indigenous rights and victims’ participation in transitional justice.